Billions of people have been treated by acupuncture for the past
thousands of years. However, why is it so difficult for FDA of
United States to approve and accept it? Since FDA won’t approve
it, all the patients, but especially the senior citizens in this
country will not benefit both physically and financially from
this medicine. Simply because many health insurances and
Medicare will not cover this type of treatment the patients are
being penalized. Therefore, we urge FDA to take action to
approve acupuncture.

There are some reasons for this present situation. The first
reason is this wrong-headed statement, “There is no
scientific evidence to show that acupuncture works.” This is
an absurd reason, which is described in the other topic, "The
Evidence of Acupuncture Effectiveness”. The FDA
hasn't approved acupuncture, yet over 14,000 acupuncturists
practice publicly and legally in over 47 states. It would appear
to be a contradiction between what the people are demanding and
what the government wants.

The second is an economically selfish reason. Because
acupuncture is so good at helping patients to recover from their
different kinds of pain, many surgeries will be proved
unnecessary if the patients use acupuncture instead.
Therefore, the FDA will not endorse acupuncture because it will
lose the backing of the AMA and pharmaceutical companies. Do not
underestimate the power of money.

The third reason is that the theories behind the acupuncture are
hard to understand. Even though the concept of qi and
yin-yang are easy to understand, the concepts of “five
elements”- metal, wood, water, fire and earth, which is the
basis of acupuncture - cannot be approved correctly by
scientific means. And frankly, it doesn't make sense. But look
at the medical theory of the Greek physician Hippocrates (475 -
350 B.C.), called the Father of Medicine. His medical theory was
based on four elements - earth, water, wind, and fire,
also thought hardly to be scientific.

I personally agree with the third reason above. Actually, some
parts of the theories are really hard to understand, and they
have confused not only the American, but also the Chinese
people. We need a new theory and the ability to describe it with
a modern language. However, even though the theory has not been
modernized and proven, we can not ignore and deny this medicine.
No matter if it is right or wrong in its theory, it works
clinically!

We don't need to know the theories before we eat food and take
medicine that has been used for thousands of years. We only need
to find it, to prepare it, and to use it. For example, the
egg-fried rice has already been prepared. If you are hungry,
just go ahead and eat it. You don’t need to go to the library to
find out what the ingredients are and what the mechanisms are.
Only recently we found out the mechanism and theory of the
willow bark, one of the pain killer herbs, which has been used
for thousands of years. Even though we now know its main
ingredient is Acetylsalicylic Acid, what we call aspirin, we do
not really, fully have an understanding of its theory and
mechanism. It has only been in the past few years that its use
for preventing heart attacks was discovered. However, the FDA
has approved it because it works! The same reasoning is used for
acupuncture. When you have pain, please go ahead and make an
appointment to get pain relief, because acupuncture has been
proven safe and effective for thousands of years. However, it
might take another hundred years to uncover its theory and be
able to describe it with modern language. Since acupuncture is
safe, effective and the least invasive means to relieve pain,
we, the American citizens, should request the FDA and medical
authorities to accept and approve this treasured medicine
because many patients cannot wait for another year.